


how to rehome your cat

by killdoll



Category: Code Geass
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Drabble, Gen, Introspection, Post-Canon, or at least canonical character disappearance depending which way you swing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-04
Updated: 2017-11-04
Packaged: 2019-01-29 06:20:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 786
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12625062
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/killdoll/pseuds/killdoll
Summary: Zero gives the only thing he's ever successfully kept alive to theotheronly thing he's ever successfully kept alive.(post-r2, major spoilers, gen, zerozaku feat. nunnally, arthur, and of course bonus sayoko.)





	how to rehome your cat

Zero does not have the time to care for or space to keep a pet, so: give Arthur to Nunnally.

Know that nothing has really changed; he still lives in the west wing of the palace, just like he did during the months leading up to Zero Requiem, wandering through dimly lit studies, meowing at waitstaff, throwing himself onto chaise lounges, rubbing his butt on antiques, and generally making a nuisance of himself, but find your hunch that the formal transfer of guardianship would make Nunnally happy to prove itself correct.

You lay him on her lap and Nunnally cups her hand around his black little head and scratches behind his ear. Press a book on proper cat care into her hands and gently suggest she read it when she has the time.

Realistically, because she’s very busy and you understand this, make sure that Sayoko also has a book on proper cat care.

Assure the both of them that Arthur is the most affectionate cat you’ve ever seen with the people he loves. (He _is_ ; just a minute ago he was curling himself out into a warm, fat comma on Nunnally’s lap, more relaxed than any cat you’d ever seen, kneading against the soft pink fabric of her day dress and purring, like _oh yeah, this is the life. No responsibilities._ At least, you think you can still recognize what that looks like.)

Empress Nunnally says, “I announced the full pardon of the original Black Knights yesterday evening.”

Stop stroking Arthur’s side (he always did turn horribly complacent in Nunnally’s arms; you always did love to take advantage) and meet Nunnally’s gaze. This is news; it’s been a hot few days since you brought about Zero Requiem, and (also as per The Plan) you’ve been lying low for the period of ensuing brief chaos. The sewer under the palace doesn’t get satellite, so you rely on these occasional stealthy jaunts upstairs for news about what’s going on. Blink; and even though no one ever has and no one ever will see Zero blink, Nunnally somehow is able to sense a cue to clarify. “Some military officials had wanted them tried for war crimes. They got some famous lawyers on their side and it was a big mess for a while.”

“Ah.” You say. “And what do the people think of that?”

“The proposed trial? Or the pardon?"

“The pardon.”

“The People,” she says, lingering on the sacred words, relishing the music they make in her voice, “think that I am a guileless, idealistic, and naive fairytale princess. But better a fairytale princess than a demon emperor.”

She turns away from you to look at the sunlight streaming in through the ornate windows.

“Those were their words.” She says.

You genuflect before her, take her hand into yours, and tap your forehead against it. She thanks you, wordlessly, with a tilt of her head.

Things are different now.

You rise. “So I would recommend,” Nunnally tells you, “that you organize some type of direct action vis a vis the Black Knights sooner rather than later? While this momentum is going still.” She drains the last of the Earl Gray that Sayoko has brought out for her. She keeps her eyes fixed on the windows— no, beyond them, to the garden outside. “They’re searching for you, you know. The Black Knights.”

“For me?” Asks— Kururugi Suzaku.

“For Zero.” Nunnally sets the teacup back down on the saucer with the faintest of _clink_ s, and Sayoko wheels it away. With her delicate hand, Nunnally returns to stroking Arthur, by this point absentmindedly. “They were released at the same time I announced the exoneration. I kept their contact details.”

In the garden outside a woman is tending roses. A kerchief ties her hair out of her face. She looks Japanese.

As you’re making to leave, you remember what you were about to say to Sayoko. “But if you make him mad,” you tell Sayoko, “he bites. Hard. So just try not to annoy him.”

Sayoko smiles at you and her eyes shimmer with tears and nostalgia and something unreadable. “Reminds me of someone else you and I used to know.” There comes a silence shared between the three of you. Your mouth drops open, and at some point while you’re fishing between the sudden vivid, half-repressed sense memories for the right thing to say, Sayoko apparently decides that the sentiment was inappropriate.

“Forgive me,” she says, “I miss him too.”

(Arthur hisses at you when you walk out the door, almost like he doesn’t want you to go. You comfort yourself by remembering how quickly he curled up against Nunnally’s warm hand, how many times he’s bitten you before.)


End file.
